I'm having trouble with fuschia Jacquard acid dye in hot pour dyeing. It doesn't want to exhaust and barely makes it into the fiber. One batch I was doing in blues and purples and greens ended with a big green and blue felt monster floating sweetly in a bright pink dyebath. (For some odd reason, I thought poking it repeatedly would convince it to take up the pink.) I can't find the info anywhere else, so does anyone know if I could have a flukey bad batch of dye or am I doing something weird? I heard turquoise can take a while to exhaust, but I never heard of fuschia being a problem, and it didn't take up even when left all night. Any suggestions for red primaries from Dharma? I think I'm going to order from them next time. Thanks in advance...

Yeah, I tried dumping in more vinegar in yesterday (I don't have pH strips so I just estimate it anyway) and then I turned the heat up a bit even though there was some bubbling since the thermometer said it was under 190F, and some of the red is going in, because my wool has pretty soft orange patches today, but still not as much as I'd like. My lovely dark brown became greenish blue. Purdy still, but unfortunately red is my favorite yarn color...

are they jaquard dyes? I have the same problem with the hot fushia! Its so irritating! I have used tons of vinegar, let it sit like forever in hot water, and nothing seems to work. the strange thing is, I KNOW it has worked for me before, but it doesnt now. I wonder if it reacts with something in the water? I should try to leave water out for a night...maybe its the clorine in the water or something? i will try a dyebatch and see what I can come up with. Maybe we can email the compnay too, b/c I thought it was just me!

I haven't played with the fushia, but I know that sometimes dyes will react with the container used for dying. Out of curiosity, what type of container were (the 2 of) you using when you didn't get the dye to exhaust? Also, dye can react with minerals in the water--do y'all have hard water?

Yup, I have hard water. Will try distilled next time. I used two different pots, a stainless steel and an aluminum pot and got similar results, although really heating up the wool today (bubbling was occuring) seemed to drive a little more fuschia in. I also lost a lot of fuchsia when doing the oven method, but I did get some decent reds to stay.

I have used the Jacquard Hot Fushcia and had no problems. I live in a hard water area as well, although in the UK if that makes any difference. The one I have had a few problems with is pumpkin orange...it seems to take forever to wash out the excess dye and yet all the other colours wash out really quickly if any excess at all???

I would get your dye tested as you may have a faulty one. Surely if it was your water or the equipment youwere using it would have affected all the other colours too?

I added my dye to warm water then got that up to boiling point on the stove, then added the vinegar and then the fibre and let it simmer for 30 mins. That is according the instructions I found on the internet and it seems to work a treat every time!

Ok, well I did some more dying, with both hot fushia and turqoise. There is a lot of dye left in the water, but I also used a lot of dye. The batts seemed to dye just great, and I didn't let the water sit overnight. (I have a lot of chorline and stuff in the water, but honeslty I forgot to let the water sit out.)

the only differnce in what I did was that I used a batt of wool that has like, no lanolin in it. My wool tends to have some lanolin in it, and maybe that was the factor? What do you think? It makes sense to me, as when it used to work fine, I used roving, and now I card all the wool myself. Maybe the more processesd the wool is, the better it works?